The unfortunate death of Polish master director
Krzysztof Kieslowski in 1996 left us a beautiful, but short legacy of films
including The Decalogue,
The Double Life of Veronique, and the Trois Couleurs
trilogy (Blue,
White, and
Red). Remaining was an unfinished script, collaborated on by
Krzysztof Piesiewicz, which had intended to be the first film of a new trilogy
with "Heaven" being the initial entry, followed by "Hell" and "Purgatory". Piesiewicz has continued to pursue the completion and the
un-filmed script for "Heaven" remained Kieslowski's final written work
and in 2002 was undertaken with the production involvement of both Sydney Pollack and
Anthony Minghella. The director would be Tom Tykwer.

The multi-layered story revolves around a simple
premise of two unlikely fugitives fleeing through Italy's
countryside. The scenery is gorgeous. It evolves into a hypnotic story of love between a young
man and a women that he barely knows. She is seven years his senior but his magnetic desire for
her is so cemented that it borders on a strongly disciplined yet whimsical
pipe-dream.

Before the opening credits have completed Philippa, (Cate
Blanchett), a British teacher living in Turin, has concluded an act of
desperation by planting a bomb to kill a drug lord who she blames for her
husband's death and who also responsible for making addictive substances available to her
students. Corruption in the Government carbinieris has inhibited her viable attempts at
exposing this man for incarceration. Following the explosion Philippa is arrested
and during interrogated she is told
that the bomb she placed had missed its intended target and unfortunately killed
4 people riding the elevator; a cleaning
lady, a father and his two young daughters . She is almost
catatonic with devastation. After she faints, a translator/stenographer named
Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi) has his hand tightly gripped by her as she awakens. It
is a defining moment.

Both Filippo and Philippa are now lost; her in unfathomable
guilt and his in an overwhelming emotional response to her. Filippo is a fascinating
young man who never seems to question his actions or motives. Eventually
he plots and plans Philippa's successful escape. Although I personally found Ribisi's portrayal only
mildly captivating, this aspect of the character Filippo is the most
fascinating part of the film for me. The moment his hand was squeezed by
Philippa it became the penultimate moment in his life. His actions as a result were so
undemonstrative and mature, so far beyond simply 'cool', that it is almost
appears to be a fantasy.

Philippa learns to love and accept that she can be loved again
through fleeing and unifying with Filippo. She is also overwhelmed by his
understated yet powerful response to her. It could be viewed as a love story in
the extreme; one side giving up everything in their universe unselfishly aware
that it may not be reciprocated at all. His loss is everything, and his gain is
undetermined. True love... but extremely fatalistically defined. The insanity of her acts, the madness of his escape plans...
and Filippo
never second guesses himself, as if he is compelled by a force seemingly
beyond his control. It is this way because it must be. Both riveting and head scratching
at the same time.

Kieslowski's vivid identity is littered throughout
many scenes, and to even attempt to pursue impinging upon his signature must
have been a worrisome task for Tykwer. What comes through is Tykwer's own vision
but a gentle homage to Kieslowski can be felt rustling like leaves in the wind.
Kieslowskian telltale coincidence in the script are giveaways in both the protagonists names
and their birth dates, yet as typical with the master director's territory,
neither are overtly discussed. Slow camera pans and a wonderful score (additional
music written by Tykwer himself) bring a warm reminiscence. This was by no means
Kieslowski in his prime, but rather a Tykwer/Kieslowski hybrid that I have
revisited on two separate occasions escalating my ultra-romanticized
perceptions. What I am left with is a mesmerizing attraction towards art,
cinema, Kieslowski, love, redemption, honesty and fatalism...

Edition Details:
• Featurette "The Story of Heaven" (4:3 - 6:17
in 4801)

Blu-ray Release Date:
May 7th, 2013Standard
Blu-ray Case
Chapters: 12

Comments:

NOTE: These
Blu-ray captures were
taken directly from the
Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Echo Bridge / Miramax - Region 'A' -
Blu-ray (April 2013):

The new
Blu-ray is certainly leaner than the 2003 DVD
in terms of extras. Regarding the image the frame gets opened -up to
1.78:1 (so we get slightly more information in the frame) - it
continues to look a shade waxy, detail and contrast modestly rise.
Colors lighten but have tighter lines. This is an extremely visual
film (excellent cinematography by Frank Griebe - see
Run, Lola Run and
Paris Je T'aime) so the 1080P improvement becomes notable.
Certain scenes are crisp - others less so - not dissimilar to the SD
in that respect.

Audio comes in the form of a DTS-HD Master stereo track
at 1560 kbps (no more surround?!) and the film has some minor
gunplay and a soundtrack with Alexander Malter's (and separately
David Arden) piano "Für Alina" as well as a few compositions
by Tykwer. It sounds strong filling the film's contemplative
silences with soothing orchestrations. The English subtitles are
only optional for the Italian dialogue (which is extensive
throughout the film.)

In regards to the supplements - we lose the commentary
and deleted (with optional commentary) scenes but retain the 'Story
of Heaven' featurette. How hard would it have been to include
them?

Bottom line is that Echo Bridge / Miramax have really
gone 'cheapo' with this Blu-ray. We
lose the surround audio, the full subtitles and the best of the
extras. What gives? I consider this quite a shame because I am still
a big fan of 'Heaven'.

***

ON THE DVD: This
appears to be a duplicate of the Buena-Vista Region 1 (US) DVD simply
relabeled and packaged by Alliance Atlantis (Canada).

A very solid transfer
with hints of DNR which is a shame because other than that
it appears to be an authentic image - bright colors, good contrast, good skin tones
(that don't look touched up). Curiously, the original soundtrack
language is English with partial Italian, and the subtitle choices allow
you to watch the film with English subtitles over the Italian dialog
only (default), French subtitles throughout the entire film, English
subtitles over both the Italian and English dialog, or none. I would
have preferred white subs to yellow (as always). The 5.1 audio is never
tested as a lot of the film is told through its images. Great Extras
with a director commentary, deleted scenes and a short featurette.